Andrew Collins (b. 1957) is an author with an interest in the paranormal.

After an uneventful school career, in which he was banned from taking the English O-level exam because of his poor writing ability, Collins eagerly accepted a position working as an export shipping clerk in London. His childhood interest in the mysteries of life eventually led to him becoming a UFO investigator, whereby he would visit witnesses to strange phenomena and then file reports with national organisations. In 1976 he became a familiar figure in the embryonic punk movement, forming his own band and going to gigs with the likes of novelist and NME writer Tony Parsons and Irish pal Shane McGowan, who went on to form legendary Irish folk-rock band The Pogues. At the same time, collins continued to investigate UFO cases, including the now famous Aveley abduction, the first full-blown time-loss UFO experience ever reported on British soil. It brought him into contact with psychologist and writer Graham Phillips, who was then working as a parapsychologist studying the psychological profile of witnesses to the paranormal.

Collins chucked in the prospect of a musical career in favour of becoming a staff writer alongside Phillips on the magazine Strange Phenomena. In October 1979, Collins and Phillips became embroiled in a historical drama, which would be remembered as the Green Stone affair -- an event that would kick-start the rebirth of psychic questing in the modern era.

In Tibetan Buddhism there is an ancient tradition of spiritual treasure hunting which focuses on the recovery of termas, which is a direct equivalent of modern psychic questing. A monk who becomes involved in Terma hunting is known as a Terton. However, similar methods of discovery have been used for thousands of years and there are many recorded instances of holy men or women being inspired to find hidden relics (e.g. Joan of Arc), occultists using necromancy to find buried treasure (e.g. John Dee and Edward Kelley) and psychics being brought in to uncover archaeological remains (e.g. Frederick Bligh Bond's excavations of Glastonbury Abbey).

Andrew went on to write and publish various books and booklets on psychic questing, local history and the earth mysteries whilst also making himself something of a name as an occult maverick. He eventually hit it big with his ground-breaking tome From the Ashes of Angels (1996), the culmination of five years' work on the Grigori and Nephilim with the help of his friend and colleague Richard Ward. This book ditched the previous mix of historical fact and psychic information that had become his trademark and replaced it with a kind of speculative historical perspective. Since then he has written five further books that are intended to challenge the way many view the past.

His latest book, The Cygnus Mystery (2004), marks a new level of interest in his work with it claim that cosmic rays from the Cygnus constellation helped kickstart religion and even civilization at the end of the last Ice Age. However, it is the The Black Alchemist (1989) that has inspired a generation of occultists. The identity of the Black Alchemist remains a topic of considerable debate in magical circles in the UK, though Collins has been quiet on the subject for during the last few years.

The Black Alchemist also featured as a major character - the bad guy - in the 50th Anniversary issue of DC Comics' The Green Arrow back in 1991. It was written mainly by TV and film actor Mark Ryan, whom Collins met when he was playing the role of Nazir the Moor in screenwriter Richard Carpenter's 1980s TV series Robin of Sherwood.

Collins has also worked closely with gothic band Fields of the Nephilim, having become friends with its frontman Carl McCoy back in the late 1980s. Collins was involved in creating the band's website, and recently he worked with McCoy on an article cum interview for AOS - A Celebration, a book published on 14th May 2006 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the death of artist and occultist Austin Osman Spare. Other contributors including Alan Moore.

Collins remains a colourful and controversial figure. He has been satirised as the character Danbury Collins in books written by Robert Rankin. Rankin thought he had successfully hoaxed Collins over alleged sightings of a Griffin in the Brentford area in the 1980s, but the last laugh was when the cosmic joker produced a real sighting of the elusive beast, as is detailed in Collins's booklet "The Brentford Griffin". This is Collins's only real fortean work to date.

Collins lectures worldwide, and is the organiser of the annual Questing Conference, one of Britain's most popular annual events on revisionist history, forbidden archaeology and ancient mysteries. He lives in Essex with his wife Sue.

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